App brings CPR to your fingertips

Between car pools, soccer games, doctor appointments and making your own organic baby food (yeah, right!), a few things can get lost. And when it comes to emergencies, you don't want to forget those life-saving procedures you learned in your prenatal CPR class about a million years ago.

Thankfully, help is just an iPhone away.

Skokie-based Transcension Healthcare already produces simulation software for physicians to brush up on techniques. But it recently launched an iPhone app specifically for parents and other caregivers, BabyCPR.

According to Dr. Raymond Wu, BabyCPR is for "anybody who's going to be dealing with infants." He doesn't see it as a replacement for the CPR class offered at your local hospital, but as a supplement.

"The class is great, and (parents) should take it if they can," he says. "But after taking the class, they forget the details. This is a great way to refresh."

The app allows the user to physically try the skills, and different censors on the iPhone or iPad give feedback ("slow down!" "too long!" or "great!"). The user can press on the image of a baby doll or Teddy bear to do chest compressions and blow into the phone's microphone to administer breaths.

Wu points out that the app is not meant to use during an emergency, but to familiarize yourself with CPR so that when an emergency arises, you can get to it.

"When you have an emergency, time is of the essence," he says. "The better you know your CPR, the better you will be prepared for an emergency. It's not something you should look up while you have an emergency."

He says the company is looking to produce a version of the app for Android, and also hopes to produce child and adult versions at some point.